Gauravonomics Blog

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Quick Summary: Read why language (English vs. vernacular), mode of access (Internet vs. mobile) and social dynamics (global vs. Indian) will be the three dimensions of differentiation for Indian social networking sites.

In my previous post, I wrote about why Indian social networking sites need to differentiate themselves –

Most of the Indian social networking sites are basically India-focused Facebook/ MySpace/ Orkut/ LinkedIn clones. Such clones would only be popular amongst a small set of twenty-something Indians in metros who won’t want a clone anyways.

I also presented a typology of Indian social networking sites on a 2X2 matrix with Indian-vs-global social dynamics on the X-axis and Indian-vs-global user appeal on the Y-axis –

– and suggested that –

To really build an identity and a broad Indian user base for themselves, Indian social networking sites need to reflect the unique nature of relationships in the Indian society.

Quick Summary: Read a soon-to-be-real scenario featuring imaginary Indian Social Media Outsourcing (SMO) company BuzzPundit to understand why SMO will be the next big business opportunity for India after BPO and KPO.

If you found it difficult to believe my assertion that social media outsourcing (SMO) will be the next big business opportunity for India, let me present a soon-to-be-real scenario featuring imaginary Indian SMO company BuzzPundit.

Imagine a sprawling corporate campus on the outskirts of a large Indian metro (take your pick from Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Gurgaon or Pune). Imagine 10000 twenty-something Indians sitting in front of their computer screens. If you must, think of a call center. Except that these twenty-somethings are not making call after call to customers in the US; they are reading articles, posts and comments and tagging them, or responding to them.

Welcome to BuzzPundit. You are at the corporate campus of one of India’s many social media outsourcing (SMO) companies.

Quick Summary: Read about how to run an effective blogger review program across a wide variety of product and services categories.

Background: While blogger review/ blogger relation programs have become popular internationally over the last two years, they are virtually unheard of in the Indian context. At the @MumbaiTwit tweetup last Sunday, I was speaking to a friend about setting up a blogger review program, and decided that it will be useful to put down my thoughts in the form of a how-to guide.

Scope: In this how-to guide, I’ll focus on running an effective blogger review program, not a blogger relations program. A blogger review program is typically a tactical, short-term, time-bound campaign focused on getting bloggers to review your new product or service. A blogger relations program involves building more strategic, longer-term, open-ended relationships with bloggers who are influential in your product or service niche. In terms of applicability, blogger review programs can be effective across a wide variety of product and services categories, including books, music CDs, movie DVDs, websites, gadgets and restaurants.

Step 1: Set up the blogger review program

Quick Summary: Yours truly was featured today in Indian daily Hindustan Times’ full page story on Young India Forum panel discussion on the Indian Budget 2008.

Yesterday, I was part of a Hindustan Times Young India Forum panel discussion on the Indian Budget 2008. The Young India Forum is an initiative by Hindustan Times to “drive change and reach more people more directly”.

Hindustan Times had put together an interesting panel consisting of young film-makers, entrepreneurs, and corporate fast-trackers and I had a great time at the panel discussion –

Finely tailored suits, chic skirts and fancy designations — a perfect picture of corporate India, but without the grey hair. On Friday, young MDs, VPs and filmmakers, representatives of the changing face of corporate India, got together to take part in the Hindustan Times Young India Forum. To discuss, naturally, the Budget presented by Finance Minister P Chidambaram.

As the FM read out the fiscal Budget — his fifth in a row — clad in a pristine white dhoti, these designer-clad corporate honchos chuckled, sighed, laughed and gave their perspective on one of the biggest events of the year in India.

Quick Summary: A number of good quality marketing, public relations & social media blogs in India form a mature niche now.

I recently compiled my list of social media agencies in India to highlight the high level of activity I’m suddenly seeing in that niche.

Another related area where I’m suddenly seeing very high level of good quality activity is in the marketing, public relations & social media blogs niche in India.

Not very long back, I had mentioned that Gauravonomics Blog was one of the five Indian blogs on the AdAge Power150 list. Today, as many as fifteen Indian blogs can be on that list.

The blogs included in this list are not only written by marketing, public relations, or social media practitioners, they are also focused on these topics. Blogs on unrelated topics written by marketing, public relations, or social media practitioners are not included in the list.

The main objective of the list is to develop a sense of community in the niche. This is the reason why I have added blogger profiles on Facebook/ LinkedIn/ Twitter wherever possible. This is also the reason why I have structured this list alphabetically (by author name) and not as a ranking. Agency blogs and multi-author blogs are listed separately.

Quick Summary: The second Mumbai Twitter Meetup at Italian restaurant White in Goregaon had a full house with as many as sixteen people turning up.

In Mumbai? On Twitter? Let’s meet up.

Here are the details of the next Mumbai Twitter Meetup —

Date: Sunday, March 2, 2008
Time: 11:30am - 3:30pm
Location: White, Off Link Road, Near VIBGYOR School, Goregaon, Mumbai, India

Aditya, who owns the Italian restaurant White, has graciously offered to give us 50% discount on food for the meetup.

So, what are you waiting for? If you aren’t already on Twitter, go sign up Twitter, then start following me @Gauravonomics, Aditya at @acmhatre and Mumbai Twitter Meet at @MumbaiTwit.

You can register for the event by registering on the Facebook Mumbai Twitter Meetup Event, sending a message to @MumbaiTwit, or leaving a comment below.

Remember: Each one, tweet one (that is, get an interesting friend to sign-up for Twitter and come to the meetup).

Also See: Details of first Mumbai Twitter Meetup.

Quick Summary: Indian daily Mid-Day did a story today on cool bachelor pads and used mine as the lead.

Indian daily Mid-Day did a story today on cool bachelor pads and featured my own humble bachelor pad as the lead —

Gaurav Mishra, 28, Marketer

After 6 years of slumming it out at hostels and PG setups (through his education and internship), Gaurav Mishra was finally ready to settle down. “Not in the oft-used sense of the term, of course,” the IIM-B alumnus jokes. So, the 28-year-old traded in his nomadic lifestyle for a 2-bedroom flat in Cuffe Parade, that he painstakingly furnished and colour coordinated black upholstery, orange bedroom, blue living room to ensure it feels like home.

Gaurav’s tips: Don’t blindly follow people’s advice. I was told cane furniture is difficult to maintain, but I’ve had mine for the last 4 years. And it’s good as new. Instead of letting stuff (clothes, books, dishes…) pile up, allot spaces for various things, and ensure they go there. Booze bottles and glasses stay in the bar cabinet, books and DVDs in my second bedroom, that I plan to turn into a podcasting studio, the technophile says.

Update: Here’s an updated list of social media agencies in India.

I have been watching the social media marketing scene in India for a while now, and, suddenly, things seem to be heating up in this space. On the demand side, companies/ brands are showing willingness to engage with social media and, on the supply side, many players are offering, or planning to offer, a variety of social media services.

The Indian players offering social media marketing services can broadly be divided into three categories –

- Digital advertising agencies offering social media marketing services with a focus on virals, social network apps, social media campaigns etc.

- Public relations agencies/ practitioners offering social media services with a focus on online reputation monitoring and social media outreach etc.

- Prominent bloggers offering, basically, corporate blogging consulting services and workshops.

Let’s look at the players under each category in some detail.

Digital Advertising Agencies

- Webchutney

Location(s): Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore

Services: Online reputation monitoring, social media outreach, viral videos, social network apps.

Known clients: Boston Consulting Group, Airtel, MakeMyTrip, BookMyShow, Tata Motors.

- Quasar Talk, from Quasar Media, now part of the WPP Group.

Quick Summary: My take on the PR vs marketing debate in social media circles — nobody owns the social media sandbox.

There’s a debate going on in search, marketing and PR blogs on what is Social Media Marketing, how does it relate to Search Marketing and Social Marketing, and who owns it.

On one extreme are the SEO/ SEM experts who primarily focus on the role of social bookmarking, social news and other social networking sites in driving traffic to websites (The Search Marketing Purists) –

Social media is easy to hype because there is a lot of traffic on social media sites. But if you try to do anything with social media traffic to convert it to revenue, you will be hard-pressed — unless you are selling CPM-based advertising. (Aaron Wall)

On the other extreme are the not-for-profit social workers who primarily focus on the role of marketing in influencing social behavior and bringing about social change (The Social Marketing Purists) —

Social marketing seeks to influence social behaviors not to benefit the marketer, but to benefit the target audience and the general society. (Nedra Kline Weinreich)

Quick Summary: My Twitter Direct Message Retweet Bug Meme is shaping up into an interesting social media experiment.

Here’s a quick background and description of my Twitter Direct Message Retweet Bug Meme —

@twilightfairy & @shweta have been having fun with my Twitter direct message retweet bug. (link)

Basically, if you send me a direct message on Twitter, it gets re-tweeted as my own message because of a Twitter bug. (link)

I have requested Twitter to fix it, but they haven’t come around to it yet. Guess they have bigger problems to fix. (link)

While Twitter finds time to fix my direct message retweet bug, let’s have a little fun with it. (link)

If you want your message to be retweeted to my 450+ Twitter followers, send it to me as a direct message. (link)

What fun! To have even more fun with my direct retweet meme, ask your followers to send a direct message to me. (link)

Here are the conversations that my Twitter Direct Message Retweet Bug Meme has generated so far –